Having a good, solid dependable mount is in many ways more important than having excellent optics. In my experience, almost all telescopes have inadequate mountings. In fact the mountings of commercial refractors sold on the general marketplace, such as by Sears' etc, have such horrible loose, wobbly mountings that I'm amazed that anybody in this country ever makes it to the serious amateur stage!!
Its discouraging, but you should probably pay something like an equal amount for the mounting as you do for the optical tube assembly for a moderate-sized telescope.
I have made my own mountings and fought with commercial mountings for years. Astro Physics makes the only mount I've ever seen that is decent, but its a little pricey.
Having a good mounting is like having a good solid foundation under your house.
regards,
glenn shaw
Chris1011@aol.com wrote:
In a message dated 10/1/2001 1:39:09 PM Pacific Daylight Time, smsimon@sbcglobal.net writes:
So right now I'm most likely stuck with choosing between a GM-8 and the Vixen GP-DX, of course, after I add the price of the two drive motors and hand controller to the GP-DX, we're lookin at about $100 shy of a NEW G11.You are going to be severely handicapped with the two small mounts unless you like to throw out every second exposure due to vibrations from the slightest breeze. Get the G11 at minimum. NEVER undermount your astrophotography equipment, or you will come to hate the hobby and take up Golf or bowling - Ugg!
Roland Christen